He's A Liar
by twitch throb
Summary: Naruto has said many things to Sasuke, but "I love you" was never fitting; it didn't describe the nature of his feelings. Still, it wouldn't hurt to say it once, right? To hell with it. But Sasuke always ruins everything.


**A/N: **I wrote this a few months ago, but I'm only just rereading it. I kinda like it, kinda hate it, but think it's generally okay. I've written much longer things that I could put on this website but, for some reason, I like the shorter ones more. Hopefully there aren't any glaring mistakes that I've missed.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto (or Sasuke).

**Warnings: **None, really. Bad language, mentions of sexual things. Gay ninjas.

* * *

He didn't wanna say "I love you." This was because, first of all, Sasuke is a dick. A gigantic, frozen popsicle of a dick. Naruto's competitive need to outdo Sasuke in everything made affection and ideas like _love_ nonexistent between the two. If anything, punching each other in the face was their form of tenderness. Naruto never questioned whether or not their relationship was healthy – he enjoyed it far too much to care.

Second of all, "I love you" had no ferocity. He'd read enough of Sai's recommendations and Jiraiya's books for the three words to become commonplace; it was equivalent to saying "bless you" after someone sneezed. Nice, but it hardly memorable.

What he felt for Sasuke wasn't love. It was burning; it was agonizing. It was humiliation and despair, and it was a constant taunting voice in his head that taught him to like being bruised. "Love" was just one of the many words Naruto had long ago figured out didn't matter when it came to Sasuke. What he felt for Sasuke didn't have a name.

Yet, there he was, sitting on his bed, swaying his feet and watching as the person he was so utterly obsessed with organize his underwear drawer. He was contemplating those words and what might happen if he said them aloud.

"I can't believe you live like this, it's disgusting- you're lucky I haven't spewed up the lunch I'm trying to digest. Are these noodles? Oh my _god-_"

Naruto couldn't do much else but laugh when Sasuke got in one of these moods. By the time they were both twenty, Sasuke had developed a somewhat obsessive-compulsive personality. Naruto supposed that, on a deeper level, it was due to Sasuke's need for control and order; his life had taken a dive somewhere in shit creek a long time ago, and that was something he couldn't change – so he tried to control everything else.

On a much less deeper and much more amusing level, Sasuke had taken a liking to wearing panties that would always bunch up at the sight of a mess. He snickered; Sasuke didn't get worked up over many things, but here he was, gaping at some ramen that had fallen in Naruto's underwear drawer.

"Why the hell did I bother coming over here. What did I expect from the most disgusting person I've ever known," Sasuke mumbled under his breath. He looked over his shoulder to Naruto. "You are never stepping into my home for more than ten seconds at a time. That's me being generous."

"Eh? But you'd love it if I came over. Doesn't cleaning up relax you? I'd make sure you had a lot to work with-"

"Heinous."

Naruto whooped, snorting and clutching his sides. Sasuke's intensity when it came to this particular subject seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. He sometimes thinks he should be more sensitive – after all, this little personality trait was born out of a disastrous life; he knew that better than anyone – but Sasuke never gets too upset about it, and since when did Naruto have any sense of delicacy?

Sasuke groaned, rubbing his temples. "When I finish with this, we're going outside, and I'm going to beat the crap out of you," he declared as he flicked the dry noodles into a plastic bag. Naruto scoffed.

In spite of Sasuke's threat, he did not beat the crap out of Naruto when he was done; instead, he wiped the rest of the house clean. He made Naruto sit in a chair until he was content with his work. Getting Naruto to sit still was a feat in itself; but to be fair, he complied more out of pity than anything else. Besides, this was the cleanest he'd ever seen his own house. He hadn't set eyes on his _entire floor_ in months, let alone in such a sparkling state.

"What happened to kicking my ass?"

Sasuke smirked to himself. "That can happen later." His anger had dissipated with the filth of the house, but it wouldn't take much for it to come back full-force when he was around Naruto.

Naruto watched Sasuke wipe away the sweat from his forehead, a satisfied, sly smile in place. He figured now was the perfect chance. He was feeling adventurous. And, besides – those three little words were nothing. A greeting, practically.

He didn't think about the frantic nagging in his gut that told him, "Say it now. You need to say it. He needs to _know._"

"Hey, Sasuke."

Sasuke settled into the chair across from Naruto, looking at him expectantly and making sure to set his cup of water on a carefully folded napkin.

"What would you think if I said I loved you?"

He froze for a moment, then traced circles along the rim of the cup. Naruto's heart was beating out of his chest, all over the shiny floor.

Sasuke's finger slowed and the circles become shaky; he brought that hand up to lean his chin on, making sure to keep his expression indifferent. "What do you want me to say."

Naruto blinked, and annoyance tickled his throat. "Well, I don't _want _you to say anything. Just tell me what you think."

"What if I said I don't think anything about it?"

It shouldn't have hurt, but it did. Naruto knew those words should have meant nothing; they were flimsy, so it didn't matter if he said it or not. It didn't matter if Sasuke thought anything about it.

But, somehow it did, and Naruto had never knew much of self control.

He shot up and his chair fell backwards, scuffing the floor. "Really? You don't think _anything_ about it, Sasuke?" he yelled, slapping his palms on the table and spilling Sasuke's water.

"That's right," Sasuke said, no reaction except irritation visible on his face.

Naruto leaned over and pulled Sasuke up by his collar, stepping on the table and pushing Sasuke to the ground, chair and all. He sat heavy on Sasuke's stomach and clenched his hands in his shirt. There was an evident desperation in his eyes and voice when he bit out, "Really?"

Sasuke flinched at the feeble tone, but he didn't have enough time to think about how to respond because there were hard knuckles against his cheek, threatening to shatter his jaw, over and over again. He moved to grab Naruto's arms, stopping the onslaught, and bucked him off. Somewhere far away, his mind weakly tried to tell him that they were going to make a mess of the house if they let this escalate any further, but the voice was far too small in comparison to the loud look in Naruto's eyes. He switched their positions, punching Naruto in the gut until he was choking on his own spit. He shifted to land a punch in the middle of that _aggravating_ face when Naruto tugged on fistfuls of Sasuke's hair, pulling him backwards. Sasuke's knuckles landed, weaker than intended, on Naruto's chest.

Naruto sat up, grabbing Sasuke by his forehead and smashed his head against the ground with gritted teeth, hardly feeling it when Sasuke kneed him in the stomach. All he felt was a red hot _rage_, something that might have been sadness in someone else – something that might go away with a bit of civilized discussion. It was more satisfying to bash Sasuke's head in.

Feeling the room spin and sway, Sasuke grasped the last bit of sense he had left and reached up to clutch Naruto's face with his shaky hands, enduring the throbbing in his head to be the adult in the exchange for once. He kept his touch as gentle as his hands could manage, clenching his jaw.

It came out before his brain caught up, and Naruto's grip lessened more and more as he asked, "Why? Why would you say that?"

Sasuke tried not to focus on the pain and softened his expression, hoping he looked the least bit human.

"Why would you- What do you _mean_ you don't think anything about it?" Naruto clenched his fists in Sasuke's shirt, bottom lip trembling. He begged himself not to cry. "Sasuke."

In retrospect, Sasuke didn't actually know whether or not it was the right thing to say – he just said what his mouth seemed intent on letting out. "I'm sorry."

"Don't you _know_ how much I..." Naruto let out a hiccuping sob, cursing his lack of control when it came to Sasuke. "You can't tell me you don't know, yet you just- just like that, you..."

Sasuke tried to wipe away the tears, feeling some of them land on his own cheeks. He rubbed his thumbs along the corners of Naruto's cheeks, body stiff. Being gentle didn't didn't suit him.

"Don't you know how much I _love_ you? How sick in the head I am for you? I'm in so deep and so bad and I can't get out, Sasuke. Sometimes I wanna punch you, but sometimes I wanna kiss you, and I end up punching you anyway because I think you'll despise me, goddamn it." He slumped, holding Sasuke's face.

"I know, Naruto."

"I love you. I love you."

"I know."

"I'm so fucking in love with you-"

"I know."

Naruto leaned down further, muttering and listening to Sasuke's voice all the while. He stopped to press his forehead against Sasuke's and whispered again against his cheek, "I love you. I've loved you ever since I first met you and I'm an idiot because I couldn't say it, so I hated you instead. I've loved you for so long, but you're an asshole and I..." His lips trailed their way to Sasuke's. "I love you," he said one more time, pressing his lips down until their teeth were touching and Sasuke had his hand on Naruto's neck.

A kiss that was rough and that hurt their chapped lips; a kiss that held the weight of a lifetime of longing and loss and tension andwant. Naruto didn't know who was whimpering, but they both swallowed the noise nonetheless. Five minutes of sloppy, dazed eternity.

When Naruto pulled away, he struggled to breathe.

Sasuke's hand slid off of Naruto's neck. He wiped at his mouth. "That was terrible," he said, voice more unsteady than he'd like.

Naruto didn't seem to hear him. He leaned down and kissed him again, biting and licking – he wanted to press closer, and it was a bit irritating to realize he couldn't. Sasuke ran his tongue along his teeth and thought that Naruto was probably the only one he'd ever want so badly.

They touched each other and lost their breath. Naruto felt like he was fifteen again when he made a mess in his pants, and felt embarrassed when Sasuke later said it was his first time getting humped. When they cleaned themselves up – and Sasuke regained enough of his senses to freak out about the scuffed floor – Naruto flopped down on his bed. After Sasuke finished his once-over of the house, he joined him.

They held hands while staring at the ceiling, and when Sasuke said, "This is stupid," Naruto kissed each of his fingers.


End file.
